I usually give credit to my dad when people ask me if I went to school for Accounting. “No,” I tell them, “I get my financial brain from my dad. He taught business and accounting for years and I am the product of being raised in a home where financial responsiblity was taught. Seriously, who tracks their expenses with Quicken when they’re 25?”
I’m so thankful for the financial advisement and recommendation he’s given to me over the years. However, as there are many good things about the lessons I’ve learned, there are plenty of tendancies I’d rather not own.
For instance, my job requires me to look and analyze numbers all day long. My stress level for the day is usually directly linked to the stability of the numbers. For those of you not convinced the economy is in a tough position, apparently you haven’t taken a close look at the housing market. I was given a report this morning which summarized the last 10 years of in new home construction & remodeling. Long story short, in 2007, there was a significant drop in building permits & new home sales. In 1999, permits peaked at 12,157. In 2007, they hit an all time low of 4,888. Someone said that during this housing slump, 50% of builders will go out of business. Well, if 50% of builders go out of business, there is a good chance 50% of the trades will go out of business as well. I’m not an economist, but I’d say this is survival of the fittest.
I look at the numbers all day. Sometimes they go up, other times they go down — some of it is collectible, while some of it remains in question. We continue to read and research to try and find new pieces of information for where we can find the booming market to target ourselves for an increased workload.
However, this is what I’m learning. In the midst of uncertain times, there is only one thing I can be certain of. I have to cling to hope that if it is going to be all over tomorrow, then maybe God has something better in store for all of us. I know some of the dreams and some of the hopes of the people I work with — and though this economic uncertainity puts our whole office on edge sometimes, I have to remember that all things will work together for good. And though it might just be a shove into a new direction, we strive to keep this focus:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Managing finances may come easy to me, but so does worrying about them. Right now, I have the opportunity to let it go and trust God for His provision, knowing there is a greater lesson to be learned during the economic slump.
